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Real stories, real reasons to go smoke-free

In Waukesha, Amy Romashko is watching her 63-year-old grandfather die of lung cancer even though he’s never smoked a cigarette.

In Green Bay, Nathan Fischer is upset that he can’t go out for pizza with friends or bowling with his swim team because the secondhand smoke triggers his asthma and he gets so sick he misses school.

And in Greenfield, Mary Welch-Donovan, who watched her husband die of lung cancer, still chokes back tears every time she’s asked “smoking or nonsmoking” at a restaurant because she knows cigarette smoke knows no bounds.

About 50 days ago, a diverse group of organizations launched the Holding Our Breath for Smoke-Free Air campaign dedicated to getting stories such as Amy’s, Nick’s and Mary’s to lawmakers in hopes legislators would pass smoke-free legislation.

Since then, thousands of people have signed an online petition in support of going smoke-free and countless more have sent letters to their legislators, attended town hall meetings or taped video messages to their lawmakers—people such as Bobby Winter, a bartender in Menomonee Falls.

Bobby recently moved to Wisconsin and had a hard time finding a job in a smoke-free bar. He loves what he does, but he also loves his infant daughter and feared if he took a job where there was smoking he’d have to someday explain to his little girl why he had lung cancer but never smoked.

It’s a choice no one should have to face while also facing potential unemployment. Thankfully, an increasing number of Wisconsin communities are eliminating that prospect on their own.

Since launching our campaign, Middleton has gone smoke-free and Verona voted to go smoke-free, too. Monona will be next in June, and all of Dane County will go smoke-free in August. This brings the total number of Wisconsinites protected from secondhand smoke to more than a half million.

Going smoke free is also popular. A series of recent polls conducted in Eau Claire, Appleton and Marshfield show far more than 70 percent of people support smoke-free ordinances in these cities.

Clearly going smoke-free is becoming the norm, not the anomaly. This is great for the workers and public in those communities, but it’s insufficient for the rest of Wisconsin.

Everyone deserves the right to breathe smoke-free air at work, no matter where they work or live in our state.

After all, Amy Romashko in Waukesha deserves to know no one else in Wisconsin will have to watch a grandfather die of lung cancer because of someone else’s habit. Nathan Fischer in Green Bay should be able to join his friends for pizza or his teammates for bowling without suffering an asthma attack, and Mary Welch-Donovan in Greenfield should be able to enjoy a meal out without a painful reminder of who’s not sitting in the booth across from her.

For these reasons and so many more, please make your voice heard and visit www.holdingourbreathwi.com. We’ve been holding our breath for far too long!

Eric Schutt is Wisconsin government relations director for the American Cancer Society; phone (608) 662-7552; e-mail eric.schutt@cancer.org. Maureen Busalacchi is executive director of SmokeFree Wisconsin, phone (608) 268-2620; e-mail mbusalacchi@smokefreewi.org.